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Disease
Despite the significant role disease played in the eventual collapse of the Great Plains Cree, studies and research regarding disease and its effect on the Cree are spare and hard to come across. Those that did breach on the subject were often heavily biased or did not have sufficient information on diseases, and often disregarded the effect of it on the Cree, favouring the disappearing bison herds as the main reason for the collapse of the Plains tribes. As information and records of the natives are scarce, it is hard to predict exactly what kind of specific effects the widespread epidemics and pandemics had throughout the history of North America starting at around the late 15th century. It is especially disappointing that there are no records about disease in the Plains Cree between 1860 and 1870, something that would have had a direct and significant impact on the treaty negotiations between the government and the native groups. Even so, studies in demographics, archeological studies, primary sources (especially the extensive sources such as the Jesuit Relations) and many others shows that disease had a great impact on the Plain Tribes. Decrease in Population Population estimates of the first nation groups pre-first contact had conventionally been known as around 900,000 in North America, predicted by anthropologists James Mooney and Alfred L. Kroeber in the early 20th century. Yet, more recent demographical studies estimate that the population of the natives pre-first contact to be around 18 million, proposed by Henry F. Dobyns, the professor of anthropology and the University of Kentucky. Despite these huge figures, by the early 20th century, the Native population had reached 237,000, showing the decimation of the Native population after first contact. Although disease was not the only reason for the population decrease, it was one of the most significant ones as shown by the near annihilation of western first nations group who were nearly wiped out by the smallpox outbreaks. Spread The origins of the Old World diseases are often debated upon as information from that era is hard to come by. Some scholars such as Leitch J. Wright Jr. suggests that Old World diseases first came to the Natives through the Spaniards who came in contact with the natives in the South. He claims that a pandemic may have wiped out a good portion of the Native population even before the English and the French arrived. Some others who refute the claim that a pandemic originating from the South attributes the origin of the Old World diseases to the settlement of the French and the English in the 16th and 17th century, which coincides with the first massive outbreaks of smallpox between the natives after 1630. The Old World disease spread quickly throughout the native groups, with the established native trade routes and the usage of horses worsening the impact of the epidemics. Some of the traditions and cultures of the native tribes supported the spread of the epidemic. Practices such as ostracism encouraged the spread of the disease as people would go around to other native villages, spreading the disease and the contagions. The process would then be repeated in each infected village, impacting a huge part of North America. Social and Cultural Impacts on the Plains Cree Epidemics of such high mortality rates and rapidity in its movement throughout the continent had extremely significant impacts on the native groups of the plains. For most tribes, it changed almost every aspect of life; the majority of their village would be dead, and this led to extreme changes in the way those who were left lived. Also, the villagers who were suffering from the plague would become a target of panic and fear, leading to social disruptions such as flight, scapegoating, fatalism, quarantine, ostracism, therapeutic measures and intragroup conflicts. Social disruptions such as flight and ostracism encouraged the spread of the epidemic as infected people carrying contagions would go to other villages, infecting them and spreading the contagions, whereas quarantine reduced infection and spread, but instead made those who were infected die faster. These social disruptions effectively halted the normal functions of the village and sometimes permanently changed the culture and lifestyles of these villages due to the dramatic change it brought to the villages. The dramatic decrease in the Cree population also had a big impact on justifying European colonization of the Cree lands. Contrary to the belief of the Europeans, the natives were actually a very civilized and advanced society with a large population. Unfortunately, the population was decimated due to the the pandemics that occured pre-English and French first contact and the epidemics that occured after first contact, leading to the collapse of the great native civilizations and groups. This resulted in the more primitive and uncivilized native society that we are more familiar with, which supported the European sentiment that they were colonizing and taking the land of uncivilized, heathen barbarians who were few in numbers. If the Cree and the other natives still had the advanced civilization and large population they had before the epidemics hit them, colonization would have been harder to justify and the Cree List of Works Discussing the Effect of Disease on the Cree * Henry F. Dobyns – Their Number Becomes Thinned: Native American Population Dynamics in Eastern North America * Bruce G. Trigger – Natives and Newcomers: Canada’s “Heroic Age” Reconsidered * Janet W. McGrath – Biological Impact of Social Disruption From Epidemic Disease * William A. Starnam – The Biological Encounter: Disease and the Ideological Domain * Alfred W. Crosby Jr. – Virgin Soil Epidemics as a Factor in the Aboriginal Depopulation in America Works Cited * Brain, Rebecca Lee Barbra. Invisible Demons : Epidemic Disease and the Plains Cree : 1670-1880. University of Saskatchewan Library Electronic Theses & Dissertations. University of Saskatchewan Library Electronic Theses & Dissertations. Web. 3 May 2012. . * "Native American Disease and Epidemics." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 15 May 2012. . * "Diseases Decimate Native American Populations." - For Dummies. Web. 21 May 2012. . * McGrath, Janet W. "Biological Impact of Social Disruption Resulting from Epidemic Disease." American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 1991. Web. 31 May 2012. .